Tuesday, September 20, 2011

My Best Friend’s Wedding :: Friday.

It is beyond mind blowing to me that the wedding has come. And the wedding has gone. I knew I’d feel like this after, a little confused, lost, sad, but mostly 150% grateful I could be a part of such a magical memory. All of the days, weeks and month of planning leading up to Sept 17th, 2011 holds more than just a special place in my heart. They hold hundreds of memories that couldn’t be erased if I had tried. So I’m going to go through the days, post by post, so I can remember it all. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

{One thing though – I only just a handful of iPhone photos of the whole weekend, so these really won’t be photo heavy posts…just memory heavy posts.}

Friday was a day for Jaime and I to run tons of last minute errands, and Ryan and his BFF Nate to run tons of last minute errands. When we look back on it now – this day was such a cluster rhymes with duck in oh so many ways. Before they picked me up at 10a, J&R had ran to get their Marriage License, but got held up doing even that because the woman was just a little {lotta} off her rocker and because she really didn’t quit talking the entire hour they were there, it put them back just a little {lotta} bit. They picked me up a little before 10a, and we were off.

We then ran back to their house to exchange vehicles, and Jaime and I ventured downtown to get our mani/pedi’s. Whenever James and I get pedicures together, it’s always a ticking time bomb to see who will kick their nail lady first.

We both know the conversation will be put on hold, and to be patient of all giggles, kicks and squirming throughout the entire process.

Though it was beyond relaxing and totally needed, not only did they run later than we were expecting – but James also got a parking ticket! We called it The City of Denver’s wedding gift to her that she never actually registered for. I was the last to be finished, so Jaime ran across the street to Choppers and picked us up {or FA-vorite} salads, and we were on our way to appt #2 of the day: Spray Tan. While zooming through the City of Denver and eating our salads at the same time, (at one point I remember her saying “IS IT SUNDAY AND I JUST DON’T KNOW ABOUT IT? OH IT’S NOT? EVERYONE IS JUST DECIDING TO DRIVE LIKE IT IS? OKAY, THAT WORKS, TOO.” Let’s just say we were in a little bit of a rush… ; ) we show up to Tanning Place #1 to of course find their entire system is down. Ergo zooming through the City of Denver to Tanning Place #2 and thankfully getting our successful spray tan on. Jaime is a pro spray tanner, and the night before we could have been found in Whole Foods, people everywhere, standing up from eating our dinner and her walking me through the body poses one by one. Of course when the time came, I couldn’t hardly concentrate on what I needed to do, rather channeled my inner Ross and couldn’t quit laughing and hearing the word ‘Mississippilessly’ in my head over and over.

After the spray tan, we were off to get Ryan’s ring resized. Jaime and her mom picked out the ring all on their own and Ryan didn’t want to see it until she slipped it on his finger at the altar. ::enter collective awwwwww’s here:: Cute as it was, it did pose a little {lot of} difficulty in actually getting the sizing of the ring correct. James had covered his eyes and had him try it on the night before but he felt it was a little too big. I won’t go into extreme detail as to what happened at the jewelry store, but the short version is, what we thought was a size 9 that wanted to be sized down to a size 8.5 ended up actually being a size 10. Ryan tried on Nate’s ring that he thought fit him better, so the jewelry store looked up Nate’s order so we could just get whatever size Nate had, when really Nate had a 10, too. Men. After our patient salesman informed us this madness was nothing in comparison to the laser tag supervisor job he had before the jewelry store, we didn’t feel AS badly about putting him through all the confusion. {Honestly, I can’t even remember how the ring issue was put to bed. I do know that after the brunch on Sunday they ended up going back to get yet another size.}

From the jewelry store we headed to Kansas…err..Aurora to pick up the usher gifts, had a little French fry and Frostie snack, then headed back to their house for a quick snooze and prep for the rehearsal at 5:15p. Some of the men were meeting at J&R’s house before we headed to the church, and at one point there was way too many {lazy} men there, too many girls in heels, and not enough go getter’s. I had gotten walked in on twice while trying to change, and after that, was following Jaime around like a crazy person listing off the things on our To Grab list while she runs around the house dodging said {lazy} men finding the items. Somehow we all made it out of the house in one piece, and headed to the church was rehearsal time. It went smoothly with the exception of it being redonkulously hot in the church, and all of us being giddier than giddy for the big day and not paying enough {any} attention. Oops. After that we headed down to Ryan’s mom’s house for some ahhhhmazing homemade Mexican food, wine, and enough laughs to last a lifetime. In hindsight, this really was one of my top 3 favorite parts of the entire weekend. These two have welcomed me into their families to the point where I’ve begun using their childhood nicknames for everyone, and dish out hugs to the brothers/dad’s like I’m their sister/daughter. It was a magical night sitting under the stars, under the lights strung above us, giggling at (what appeared to be) a naked neighbor sitting next to his hot tub, making silly $5 bets, and just soaking up the calm before the next day’s festivities. Sometime before midnight, everyone gave their final hugs and headed off to our respective sleeping households. Gina and I cozied up in a king size bed with Jaime {not just any king size bed – THE most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in!} where we wished Jaime her last and final good night’s sleep as a Schwenzer.